According to Nikki Finke in her Deadline Hollywood Daily Blog, a planned meeting took place earlier this week between New Line Cinema and the new chairman of their parent company, Warner Brothers. the result of this is that founders Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne are to lose their positions and New Line’s current projects, including ‘The Hobbit’, are to be folded into Warner Brothers. This is seen to be the result of a string of financial failures since the end of the Lord of the Rings franchise. There is no mention of The Golden Compass or His Dark Materials franchises and their future. Read about it here.

Addenum 24/1/08: Theonering.net reports that New Line have confirmed by email that there is no substance to the suggestion that Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne are about to lose their jobs and that all their projects would remain with the company. You can read about it here.